A proposed methodology for the design of electronic-mechanical products

Given the ever increasing industry and commerce generated every year from consumer electronics production and consumption, the need for a tighter relationship between the disparate domains of electrical and mechanical engineering will improve the efficiency of the interchange process for cross-domain design and reduce the cycle time of product development. The types of electronic-mechanical (EM) products considered here, fall into a class considered static by nature when compared to traditional eletromechanical systems typified by motion control systems. The products focused on are mobile communication (digital phones, text messaging pagers and self-configuring networking nodes), computing (PCs, laptops, tablets, PDAs), mobile audio (MP3 players and radios) and meso-scale sensing (solar, vibration and thermal sensors) devices.; Early detection of EM design interactions at the onset of the product development process reveals key relationships or couplings that will further impact the geometric and functional characteristics of these densely packed systems. Coupling theory is developed and applied to this specific area of product design to address the organizational and analytical requirements of the process. The theory presented formalizes analytical techniques for monitoring the progress and flow of engineering information across the domains and extends the use of set-based design and matrix analysis approaches. A web-based collaborative software called CrossTalk was created to structure and manage the design interactions throughout the process of design.; An empirical approach provides an alternative technique for characterizing the strength of cross-domain couplings by using experimental design to investigate the common functionalities of EM products such as thermal management and reduction of RF signal attenuation. A web based experimental design software called Design of Experiment Testbed (DOET), was created for EM functional analysis.; The thesis hypothesizes that new high level support to ECAD/MCAD is needed to accelerate the design flow of consumer electronic products and that such tools would also enhance functionality in areas such as thermal management and RF reception quality. The suite of collaborative and analytical tools used to improve the ECAD/MCAD environment based on case study experiments on a variety of products (personal ubiquitous devices, various wireless platforms and a computational/emulation engine) have proven this working hypothesis for ECAD/MCAD.